#childhood friends chlonette if you squint hard enough

[peterxwade24]

Jonc de mer and Acropora

For Maribat March 2021 day 3 prompt Warmth. (If you squint hard enough).

This is part one of an I don’t know how many part fic. I hope you stick around because it’s going to be a ride.

Jonc de mer is French (I think) for Seagrass while Acropora is a type of coral (purple coral actually). Sticholodinae is a subcategory of Ladybugs that, as far as I can tell, have either no spots or one big splotch surrounded by smaller spots. The email address in this is fake, please do not send emails to it because they may get redirected to a very real person named Menene.

Of course a big thank you to @maribatmarch-2k21 for putting on the event, now lets get on with the fic.

The only thing Marinette remembers of her mother is the warmth she provided against a harsh cold. She remembers very little about her mother’s family, only that she seemed to be surrounded by purple anytime they were close. She only remembers so little because her mother, and her mother’s family, were slaughtered by the false king and she was left for dead. Thankfully, a pod of passing merpeople heard her cries and carried her to the closest shore. She tearfully waved goodbye to the pod as the surf carried her ashore.

She was taken in that day by a wonderful man, stocky in build with short brown hair and green eyes. She knew her life would change, beginning with the man renaming her. The name her mother gave her would always be what Atlanteans called her, it was as much a part of her as her purple eyes and her permanently tan skin. The man, named Tom, renamed her Marinette because she seemed to rise with the sun.

---

Marinette and Tom met Sabine in Paris, France. Sabine was a beautiful woman of Chinese descent with black hair and grey eyes. She smiled at the father-daughter duo sweetly and when Tom wasn’t within hearing range Sabine told Marinette that whomever her mother was, she was one lucky lady.

Sabine was aghast at the sight of little two year old Marinette struggling to hold herself together while she has to tell the kind lady that her mother is no longer with her.

Sabine walked right up to Tom afterwards to demand he married her right that instant so they could raise Marinette together.

They were legally married by the end of the day and Sabine had started the process to legally adopt Marinette.

---

Marinette had always felt drawn to the Seine, it is what drew her parents to purchasing a building just down the street from the river. Tom and Sabine wanted to always be close by when she had access to the river. One of them would always accompany her, needing to know she wasn’t going to get swept away in the Seine.

Marinette was five when she met him. Tom was sitting a few meters away on a nearby bench reading a newspaper.

The boy, who could only be the same age as her, had short blond hair cropped close to his head, deep brown skin and pale green eyes. His eyes reminded her of seagrass, the way they seemed to be hundreds of different shades of green all at once.

Marinette smiled, her eyes following the lines his gills left as he began treading water. “Hello.” She bowed her head in greeting and was delighted when he bowed his head in return.

“Menenne. I am Kaldur’ahm, it is a pleasure to meet you.” The boy, Kaldur’ahm, extended his hand in greeting.

Marinette simply clasped his hand and shook it in greeting, tucking away that name for later. “It is certainly a pleasure to be meeting you.”

---

They continued to meet up for years, Kaldur’ahm getting more and more comfortable around her, eventually enough so that she could introduce him to her Papa. He introduced himself as “Kaldur Durham” and Tom is hard pressed to find anything he doesn’t like about his baby girl’s new friend.

In the end the two Dupain-Cheng’s introduced Kaldur to Sabine, who simply smiled and asked if he was staying for dinner.

The Dupain-Cheng family simply gave him what he needed, time to tell them about himself and the opportunity to relax. However, Marinette continued to feel a pull to the Seine.

---

They were eleven when Kaldur, who Marinette had taken to calling Jonc de mer, told her that his mentor, Arthur Curry, was joining a conglomerate somewhere in America and that he was going with him. Kaldur held Marinette as she cried, not knowing that he was surrounding her in a familiar warmth.

The very next day, when they were saying goodbye, Marinette looped a scarf made in orchid, black, melon green and pale yellow yarn around his neck. “This will keep you safe, no matter where you go. No matter how far away you are.”

Kaldur grabbed her hands and nodded. “I will have you with me wherever I go, Acropora.”

Marinette smiled and pulled her hands away so she could quickly write something down on a scrap piece of paper. “When you get settled in America, email me.” She handed over the piece of paper and smiled as he looked over what she’d written on it.

“menenne@gmail.com ;) look me up Jonc de mer”

---

Since Tom had found her on the beach of Sicily, they took family vacations to Italy and it was on one of these family vacations that Marinette made a friend.

Marinette was eight, as was the little girl, when they met. The two were just running around and through the waves. They played for hours, just smiles and laughs passed between the two no words needed. The next day they finally introduced themselves before they continued to play.

They spent everyday together, so much time in fact that Marinette felt comfortable enough telling her about Kaldur, however whenever the duo were around someone who hadn’t been given special Marinette friendship rights, the duo referred to him as the boy with blond hair and green eyes.

---

When Marinette was eleven she finally became friends with Chloé Bourgeois. It was a few days after Kaldur had gone to America when Chloé happened across her while she was sketching something for a client.

“What are you making?” Chloé asked.

Marinette closed her sketchbook with a little more force than was strictly necessary. “It’s a commission and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t attempt to steal it.” Marinette would feel bad about being mean to Chloé later but for now all she cared about was making sure that her sketch was finished in time to present it to the client.

---

Marinette was sat next to Chloé in the classroom on the day she received her Miraculous. Chloé was being her usual bratty self when a girl who was classically pretty walked in the room and visibly stuck her nose up at Chloé.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.”

Marinette gave her a once over, noting her lack of sense. Why would anyone pair an orange flannel with light blue jeans and black shoes with giant tongues? Marinette let out a nearly silent “tsk” before placing her hand on her friend’s arm. “Don’t listen to her Blondie. I know you aren’t evil.”

---

Marinette debuted as Sticholodinae, although all of Paris just called her Ladybug while Chat just called her M’Lady, a day before Stoneheart. She was photographed and seen swinging over the Paris streets testing her capabilities and her limitations.

Her suit, which Tikki said was not what she was expecting because every past Ladybug’s suit was mainly red, was mostly black. While her body was encased in black fabric, it was Kevlar enforced and didn’t shimmer in the sunlight. She had what appeared to be a bulletproof vest under a thick leather jacket which was black and faded to a very dark red at the bottom hem and the cuffs at the ends of her sleeves. Her legs were reinforced with a pair of joggers which had a very dark red waistband and were tucked into a pair of black reinforced combat boots. Her suit looked segmented like a bug to the untrained eye, however she knew that her suit wasn’t segmented but actually appeared to be scaled like a fish. Her hair was pulled up and back into a bun that looked like a work of lattice on the back while her face was obscured through several methods. Her eyes were obscured by a pitch black mask with white eye lenses while she had a charcoal gray tactical half face mask covering the bottom half of her face so that all anyone could see of her face was her forehead.

She knew her suit wasn’t what most thought of when they pictured a Ladybug, but she would do whatever it took to stay safe so that she could reunite with her Jonc de mer.